When a company evaluates replacing a role with AI, the spreadsheet usually stops at cost. Salary and benefits on one side, subscription or compute cost on the other. That comparison is real, but it's a small part of the actual decision.
The parts that get missed most often:
Regulatory exposure. AI use can raise employment, human rights, privacy, and sector-specific questions. A readiness review should identify which requirements may apply and where qualified legal advice is needed.
Maintenance, not just deployment. An AI system that handles a role well on day one can drift — model updates, edge cases, changing regulations — in ways a human employee's performance doesn't. Budgeting for the initial swap without budgeting for ongoing oversight can leave important risks unaddressed.
Consider augmentation as well as replacement. One option is to use AI for repetitive tasks while retaining human judgment and accountability. That version of the analysis rarely makes it into the first pitch, but it deserves a place in the comparison.
This is exactly what our Cost-Benefit-Employability report is built to walk through — not just "can AI do this cheaper," but what it costs to do it responsibly.